Follow Blog via Email

Boring, Bitchy and Black

Whenever a game comes out that happens to have black character in it, a few talks about that character are whispered in parts of the internet. One thing I noticed is that the character is either boring or bitchy.

Let’s talk about Jacob. The fact that people come right out and say they hate him is really… I don’t have the proper word for it, but it feels like annoyance and “Of course” rolled into one.

A gripe with Jacob is that he has the nerve to try to shame Thane for being an assassin because he works with Cerberus, a terrorist organization. Jacob was an Alliance marine and probably still has some hang ups, just like any old Joe Schmoe who was in the military. It also doesn’t help that the crew of the Normandy SR-2 is full of Alliance ex-military staff.

Jacob is any military staff. He just happens to be black. They can praise Vega, however, because he is a white presenting Latino who is fun and likes to work out! But so does Jacob? Jacob is just a normal person,trying to survive his way through the ranks, just like any black person in any field. There is no need to show off when you’re just coming to your job. A job that you do well, with little to no praise from your teammates. He works super close with Miranda, who is The Illusive Man’s right hand, how is he boring? He got to work with Shepard, how is he boring?

Same goes with Liam. He is the worst character of the game. Liam did work for HUS-T1. He worked for a crisis response team. When out in the field, Liam is very get shit done, let’s go, because that was his JOB. When off the clock, he’s probably trying to handle seeing the traumatizing shit hours before! Think about it; HUS-T1 is Heavy Urban Search and Crisis Response, so he’s probably on the ground after bomb strikes, earthquakes, shit where the death toll could be seriously high. His optimism and “odd humor” are not uncommon for those who have dealt with very heavy trauma. Also, not even gonna touch that shirtless topic. Yikes. #MasculinitySoFragile . It’s also weird how the word “hate” comes up again, until they actually get to know Liam.

It’s weird how “oh he was just a cop” “oh he’s just military” is what comes up when talking about black people and their professions, but when white people bring up their own family members who were in those positions, there’s bumper stickers, t-shirts, family get togethers based on that profession, even if they only went to boot camp/the academy. A black person could have several medals, badges, ranks, and white people would still just scoff and complain about them “bragging”.

Now, Vivienne.

She is better than everyone. This is a fact. She will let you know that she is the best of the best, she deserves the best and she will do what it takes to have the best. If that makes her a bitch, sure, she is that. Her stance on the Chantry isn’t as radical as people make it out to be. Again, weird that they can see fault with her stance but in the real world, when black people try to rise up against white supremacy, white people just kinda brush it off and wonder why the police isn’t harder on them, even with state sanctioned lynchings on the news. It’s still disheartening that, again, her accomplishments as a mage and as a very prominent player of The Game go unnoticed.